Monday, June 20, 2016

When I moved to Sri Lanka in 2002 from Southern California, I lost my poetry manuscript ‘Women Stuff’. It stayed lost for the 14years I lived there. I mourned those loss of my words, thinking I would never get them back.

I moved to Northern California in April this year. Just last week I unpacked some things and found the manuscript! How fabulous is that? Could you hear my sigh of relief?

My new neighbors. Ciarrighi and Larry, and I became friends immediately. Yesterday they invited me to go to Open Mic Night at the Community Center. Why not, I thought. It would be a good way to meet people. Closer to the evening I wondered if I should break out some poems to read. Why not?

Lots of people showed up. They were friendly, the food was good and there was some great music. One man from South Africa, songwriter Fletcher sang stories. Wonderful stories. The band Fogg played all my favorite oldies! Fogg got the crowd on their feet and onto the dance floor. One musician, Jim Arvantis, spellbound the audience with his playing and singing!

I was so glad I went!

In case you're curious, I’ve added some videos to this blog.Thanks to Ciarrighi for my videos!